This invention relates to a litter material designed for receiving urine and feces left by domestic pets, particularly small animals such as dogs, cats, mice and birds, that are kept in family homes or otherwise raised indoors. More particularly this invention relates to an artificial litter that can easily be laid in, for example, a pet's litter box or sleeping basket.
In order to dispose of the urine and feces of pets kept in family homes or otherwise raised indoors, it has long been the practice to line the bottoms of the litter boxes and sleeping baskets of such pets with materials such as well dried sand or newspapers cut up into small pieces, dry sawdust, dried grass and the like. Other known materials which are used as artificial litters include those types of plastic particulates that are sometimes referred to as "artificial sand" and pulps, which are first processed and then treated to increase their absorption and odor-prevention characteristics, and also the cut and processed fibers that constitute the sediment left when sugar cane has been squeezed as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,179,591. As can be seen from U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,429, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,804, zeolite has outstanding ammonia absorption properties and a high deodorization capacity.
It has always been necessary once pet litter has been soiled by the animal, to dispose of part or all of the soiled litter and to replace it with clean litter material. However, while conventional litter materials of the type described above have proved fairly adequate in terms of their ability to absorb pets' urine and feces, pet owners have always needed to take very great care when disposing of such soiled litter materials in view of the tendency of these materials to cause blockages in wastewater pipes and sewers if disposed of directly into flush toilets or wastewater systems. Although some litter materials can be disposed of down flush toilets in cases where soiling is extremely limited, these materials nevertheless cause blockages if large quantities of the materials are disposed of at the same time.
As a result, some pet owners have even been forced to slip soiled litter materials in with their regular garbage, or to surreptitiously dispose of the soiled litter materials by the road side, in empty lots or even directly into the wastewater system.
The disposal of soiled litter materials, which give out offensive smells and harbor bacteria, destroys the sanitary and wholesome nature of the environment in the vicinity of the disposed materials and thus contributes to environmental pollution.